Geeks
by Beth - Geek Chick
Summary: AU - Oneshot - Tim comes across an online chart that makes him rethink his whole life.


Timothy McGee was always on time. No, make that he was always early. 15 minutes was preferable, however he would push it to 5 minutes if there was a valid reason. This morning, however, he arrived to work at 13 minutes prior to 9am. Management frowned on clocking in early just to clock the overtime, so he spent his free time on his personal tablet.

Which is where his co-worker, Abigail Sciuto, found him when she clocked in, exactly on time, 13 minutes later. Abby was used to having her best friend already sitting in the desk across from hers in the office only he and she occupied, but this morning, he seemed more pensive than usual.

"Good morning, Timmy," she said, dropping her skull-and-crossbones lunchbox on her desk. She was halfway through shrugging off her leather jacket when he finally acknowledged her greeting by spinning in his chair to face her.

"Have you seen this?" he asked, pointing toward his tablet that was propped up on his desk beside his work computer.

They were both fully aware of the exact time of day, and though Tim was able to click the "Log In" of his already-up online time clock, Abby needed a few seconds to log in and do the same. Her fast fingers allowed them both to log in at the same time before she was able to turn her attention to his question.

"Have I seen what?" she asked, dropping down into her chair.

"On the Geeks Are Sexy website, they've made a Venn diagram about us," Tim said, his finger pointing to the screen.

"Well, I do love a good Venn diagram," Abby said before pulling out her own tablet and calling up the website. It was a favorite of theirs, and they often laughed and commiserated over its postings between calls.

Apparently, though, her typing and web browsing skills weren't fast enough for Tim who huffed and exclaimed, "God, are they serious?"

Abby sighed and said. "Give me a minute. Okay, what?" she said, after pulling up the website. The most recent post was a humorous take on the differences between geeks, dorks, nerds, and dweebs via Venn diagram. She read through it and gave a small laugh.

"Look how they've categorized us!" Tim lamented behind her.

"Yeah, so, what?" Abby said with a shrug. "It's pretty accurate and funny."

"Ugh."

Abby recognized that huff of frustration and wondered if more than a silly website post was responsible for her Timmy's current mood. Usually it took a call or two from one of the hapless members of the company they worked for to generate this type of frustration.

"Okay, what?" she asked, turning in her chair to face him. She hated having to do so, but given the small confines of the "office" the company gave them, it was either sitting back-to-back with a bit of breathing room, or placing their desks together and having maybe a foot or two between their bodies and the walls behind them.

"I'm not a dweeb!" Tim cried out.

"Of course you're not," Abby said automatically.

Tim replied by clenching his jaw and pointing directly at the diagram. Abby read it again and realized that, in no uncertain terms, her best friend, her co-worker, and the guy she'd told secrets to that no one else in the world had heard, was, in fact, a "dweeb."

"Oh, I see what you mean," she said quietly. When she saw the crestfallen look on his face, though, she scooted the few inches closer that separated them and placed a warm hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Timmy. It's just an article, a laugh."

He seemed comforted by her touch and soft words, but his lips were still formed in a pout. "But you said it was accurate."

Caught in her own words, Abby could only lift a hand to the braid above her left ear and twist the lock of hair in her fingers while she searched for an answer that wouldn't hurt his feelings. "Oh, umm, well…" was about all she could get out. Damn her lack of caffeine this morning!

"So it's true," Timmy said, slumping in his chair and pushing himself back under his desk. "I'm a dweeb. You think I'm a dweeb."

"No, I don't," Abby said, which was the truth, but for some reason couldn't figure out how to tell him as much without stumbling over her words more than she had already.

Tim, however, had no problem with expressing himself, as he pointed to the screen. It, obviously, stated all he had to say.

" Okay, so what are you going to do about it?" she asked.

"Huh?" Tim asked, his mouth losing some of its pout.

Through their years of togetherness, first as strangers, then as co-workers, and now as friends who spent almost as much time outside the walls of New Coast Internet Services than inside of them, Abby knew what Tim needed. "You've been presented with a problem, obviously, given your response to this article on a website, so find a solution," she said with a raised eyebrow.

After first giving her reply a "furrowed brow," as she called them, Abby saw him work through what she was offering and then smiled when his shoulders shifted back and a smile came to his lips.

"Okay, I will," he said, before lifting his chin and turning his back on her.

Abby smiled. She never liked to see her Timmy upset. It rarely ever happened, but when it did and went unchecked, for some reason, it cast a grey pallor on her day, as well. Sometimes she wondered about that, but given that she'd yet to figure it out, she'd surmised it as the trappings of having her best friend as her closest co-worker and went on with her day.

Which is what she and Timmy did the rest of the next eight hours. As IT analysts for New Coast Internet Services, their main job was keeping the computers and servers of the corporation's business up and running. While both of them entered the work force from college with stars in their eyes and degrees and certifications in their fists, it soon became all-too-real that the majority of IT work dealt with those who had no idea what IT stood for.

When Abby returned to work the next morning, she saw her Timmy hunched, once again, over his tablet, the log-in screen to their workplace on the other monitor, waiting for their official work start-up to begin.

A quick glance at his screen showed not Geeks Are Sexy, but something she didn't quite recognize. He hadn't acknowledge her appearance yet, so she shed her lunch box and jacket before starting up her own machines. While they loaded, she turned to her Timmy and asked, "How's the great experiment?"

Timmy turned on her with a smile so great that Abby had to reciprocate. "Great! I am now a geek."

Her knowledge of the Venn diagram from the previous day made Abby smile hugely and instantaneously at his pronouncement. "Wow, that was fast."

"Yep," Tim said. "I now have a tumblr site, a Twitter feed, and a Facebook page for fans of Game of Thrones."

"Wow, I love those books," Abby said, her mouth slightly hanging open at the depth and breadth to which Timmy fully engulfed his mission.

"I've sent you invites for all three," he said with a smile and a hopeful look in his eyes.

It was at this point, whenever Timmy pulled that puppy dog look, that Abby inevitably melted and gave in to his request. "I haven't been online since yesterday afternoon," she said in excuse. "Remember, I said I was visiting family last night." His hopeful glance had yet to change, so she pulled out her own tablet and quickly hit her e-mail. As he said, several websites' "invites" were there, sitting unread in her inbox.

Before she clicked to open any of them, Abby hesitated. Not that she'd not support anything her Timmy did or wanted to do, but something made her stall in clicking the "Okay" button. With a few seconds of closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, and centering herself, she knew what she had to do.

Her hand never left her laptop, but she turned in her chair to face Timmy. He still sat there, as always, a look of expectation, hope, and a tinge of wonder as to why she was hesitating to join in on his quest to escape dweebmanship.

"Why?" she asked, half a question and half a whisper.

"Huh?' he replied, his hopefulness sliding down his face that she knew only she could see. The movement upset her deeply, but she running on instinct her, on her gut, and it'd never failed her yet.

"Why do you need to do all this?" she asked. "You're a geek, Timmy. I'm a geek. It's what they call us. It's what we call ourselves. What does a ridiculous joke got to do with anything?" she asked, waving towards the now-familiar triple circle that interceded in the middle that he still seem fixated on staring at.

His mouth opened, then closed, and he blinked a few times. She recognized the process and let him think through it without any pushing or impatience.

"Maybe – maybe it's because I realized that there is life outside of a CPU."

Abby hesitated, then said, "I don't follow."

"Well, the only thing this diagram delineates between a geek and all the other names is social ineptitude. And, really, besides you and my neighbor who watches my dog while I'm at work, I have absolutely no other friends."

Abby nodded. She knew that about Tim, but she also knew that he spent a lot of his free time writing and had a lot of respect for him regarding that. "So you've decided to expand your social horizon?" she asked.

"Well, I'm not comfortable enough to go to a bar or whatever, but online social networking is the same thing, isn't it?"

Abby nodded. "Nowadays, it's pretty much how people communicate."

"Great," Tim said, the smile and hope returning to his face. "So, you'll tweet with me and like all my posts?"

"Of course, Timmy. I think this is going to be fun."

He then leaned across the space between them and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Thanks, Abby. You're my best friend, you know that?"

She chuckled into his shoulder as she returned his embrace. "Of course, and you're mine, too! I may have other friends, but do you think any of them know anything about technology?"

He released her and settled back in his chair. "We are few and far between. You think I should make a Facebook page for us, or maybe a tumblr site?"

"Whoa there, my little geek social butterfly. One step at a time."

* * *

**A/N Hope you liked it. Please review. :)**


End file.
